How to make HBP soar?
We are just a few weeks away from the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter fans are getting ready to love, hate, or something-in-between it. Here are six things that, if done right, will help make sure the film is a home run.
Spoiler alert! There are massive spoilers for the sixth film in this post. Do not read below this if you do not want to know!
I: Dumbledore:
Harry's relationship with Dumbledore has not been as fully fleshed out in the movies as it is in the books: In the books it begins with Harry looking up to who he sees as an ideal wizard. In book five, however, the relationship takes a hard left, and we start to see Dumbledore as he is: a man with faults and foibles who loves Harry like a son and yet is playing his own potentially lethal game of chess with Harry's life. In turn, Harry starts to view Dumbledore as mortal instead of godly. As the relationship between the two famous wizards develops, it also becomes more relatable, and easier to enjoy. The time the two spend together in the sixth book helps to heal some of the rough patches (which will be gashed open again for Harry in seven, for different reasons). By the time Dumbledore falls from the Lightning-Struck Tower, his death is close, and hard, and felt by all.
It has not been the same in the movies. Whether for lack of time and space, or the very unfortunate post-movie-two death of Richard Harris, Dumbledore has not been the steady and assuring force that he is in the first four books. There's been very little screen time between him and Harry, and for years fans have bemoaned the fact that if this is not rectified and rectified well in the sixth film, Dumbledore's eventual death will have all the impact of a smack with a wet towel.
There is genuine care between Harry and Dumbledore: Harry is paralyzed by his death. His death is what sets Harry on his final path of Horcrux-destroying fury. The characters inside the film have to show real love for Dumbledore before he is taken from us to make sure the moment doesn't lose any of its heft.
II: Tom Riddle's early character:
Tom Riddle is the most important (quasi-)new character in Half-Blood Prince and doing his backstory right will mean a massive ripple effect for the remaining two films. The casting of Ralph Fiennes' nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, was inspired, and not at all for the family relation: take one look at that boy acting in the trailer and you'll see it. The quiet confidence in his own malice, the seething resentment, the light in his eyes as he realizes his own power... yes. Yes, yes, yes. If it's just like that through the film, and the flashbacks tell the most relevant kernels of Voldemort's story, all will be well.
III: Snape's flight from Hogwarts:
Ask any Harry Potter fan about their favorite Snape moment and you won't get far before hearing this: "DON'T CALL ME COWARD!" That line, for many, was proof that Snape was, despite all available evidence, actually working for Dumbledore: It gave many fans the faith that Dumbledore himself had that the potions master would not betray the side of right in the end. Moments after he kills the old headmaster, while he is fleeing the grounds and Harry's advances, as Death Eaters siege Hogwarts and Hagrid's hut burns, for Snape to pause only when he is called coward meant that he had just done something very difficult for him, and very brave, something that was hurting him. The response was a chink in his usually impenetrable armor, and he is lucky there was a battle raging around him or he might have been heard, and his cover wrecked. He was also lucky Harry, too, was grieving the death of the headmaster or he might have wondered why Snape would have been so affected by one insult. (Snape, like so many, is the beneficiary of Harry's occasional slowness.)
This line, and all of Snape's actions after that fateful moment in this film, must strike that balance: Snape, trying to keep his cover, protect Draco, and even attempt to teach Harry as he flees the grounds (talk about multi-tasking!); Harry, distraught and murderous, chasing after the man he thinks has taken his world away from him. Rickman's acting and the direction must be as inscrutable and spotless as these scenes are in the book.
IV: Relationship antics:
It's not just about Ron and Lavender: the hormone level in the sixth year of Hogwarts students should absolutely reach a silly, giddy peak in this film. There was too much angst in book five to truly enjoy it - Harry and Cho snogging while one is crying over an ex-boyfriend's gruesome death? No, let's have some of that good old farcical romance that happens when too many emotions occur inside the brains and bodies of teenagers that have no idea what to do with them yet. It should be as we all remember high school being - which is to say, ridiculous.
V: Post-battle scenes
It's not just about Snape and Dumbledore. When Dumbledore falls off the tower he leaves behind him wreckage of saddened students and staff who have never imagined life at the school without him. We should be able to see this loss on all of their faces and in their actions. The case for Dumbledore's worth to the school hasn't been made by harshly delivered lines like "Don't you all have studying to do!" from movie five or his distracted and dizzied take in the third film. It can be done with artful direction here.
VI: Draco Malfoy's humanity:
Draco has a great role in this film and it's going to be fun watching Tom Felton rise from starring background player to main actor. Draco turns from one-dimensional childish bully to one of the more complex and interesting characters in the series: he wants to become a Death Eater, and seems to have even been imprinted with the mark on his left forearm. He works all year on a plan to let Death Eaters into the school and kill Dumbledore. He is successful on one part but has a lot of trouble with the second: he is found crying in a bathroom thinking about making good on that task. And when he gets the chance to try it - when he is given the very rare opportunity to do what so many wizards before him, including Grindelwald and Voldemort, could not - his hand falters, his humanity shows.
This play between Draco as uber-evil-Death-Eater and conflicted-boy-who's-gotten-in-wayyyyy-over-his-head leads to one of the best Dumbledore exchanges in all seven books: The old headmaster, weakened, disarmed and dying, hears Draco insist that he's at his mercy and says:
"No, Draco. It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."
If the conversation on that tower does not reach this caliber of awesome - revealing the astounding brilliance and yet kindness and mercy of Dumbledore, at the same time as Draco shows himself to be complicated, vulnerable, caught in a terrible place - the movie will suffer dearly.
Comments
The title? "Had should be done" is grammatically incorrect and makes no sense. Are you trying to say "Six things that ought to be done right" or "that need to be done right"? The rest of the article is brilliantly articulated, please fix that title.
The Dumbledore thing is the most important to me. I cried for a full day after Dumbledore died in the book, but I just played that part in the video game and I shed maybe a tear or two. They really need to handle the Harry-Dumbledore relationship in a full way.
The "DON'T CALL ME COWARD" scene is also important. I've been holding my breath when it comes to that scene. I love the progression from that scene to when Harry tells his son Snape was "probably the bravest man I ever knew."
I think that the scene where we first meet Slughorn needs to be handled correctly. When meeting him in the book, i really didn't know what to think of him. Getting the character details over the whole space of the book was really nice and I hope it stays that way in the movie.
The title was a little messed up and fixed. :) Thanks for the heads up!
As someone who was a fan of the movies before I ever considered picking up the books, I feel that I have a unique prospective on the movies vs. the books. I feel that, going into it, you truly have to expect to feel less or experience less, emotionally, than you did when reading the books. Sure, you may feel more in some other areas...the music might move you, the artistry of the props or the effects might be lovely...but don't expect to have a soul-shaking experience at the movies. That's not to discredit anyone who works for the films...I thoroughly enjoy the films for what they are. But the books were, for me, such a personal experience, such a personal journey, that sitting in the dark with hundreds of strangers and watching British acting "royalty" just doesn't have the same luster as dusting off my copy of HBP from the bookshelf and diving in to where the real magic resides. The movies are a representation of Jo's work, and as such can only ever be re-imagination.
MJ, brilliant comment. I agree with everything you said. You're so right... while the movies are great, you have to take them for what they are, because they never reach the full magic of the books. Ah, well.
Melissa, great article. I enjoyed reading it.
I feel that the focus of HBP the book was getting the low-down history of Voldemort and why a wizard may go bad. Cutting the Gaunts from the film was a major mistake, it showed that the line that led to Tom Riddle and Voldemort was a bit on the crazy side to begin with and take from that the love of both parents sealed the deal. It leads to TWO of the Horcruxes! This is major plot point stuff.
On a lesser note, I am sad that we won't see Kreatcher rolling around on the Dursley's carpet yelling "Won't, Won't, Won't!"
Great article, Melissa! I completely agree! Also, M.J., I couldn't have said it better myself, yet I have tried to point out to so many people that you have to keep the books and movies separate. They are just one (fairly amazing) interpretation of the books we all know and love. They may get some stuff wrong, but just think of all they have gotten right! The movies are just another way to enjoy J.K. Rowling's delightful and imaginative world! They are supplemental to the books, and when I view them that way, I am rarely disappointed.
Brava Melissa! Great article.
I agree with all your points. I think one of the other keys to this story, tho, is Harry distancing himself a little from, or being distanced from, the other kids. The last story had Harry reluctantly leading the other kids in Dumbledore's Army and fighting with 5 of the other kids at the battle at the Ministry. That book focused a lot on teamwork. In Half-Blood, tho, it's pretty much just Harry and Dumbledore. The other kids aren't involved in the heroics so much in this book. When DD dies, we need to feel the passing of the gauntlet to Harry and to see he's not leaning so much on Dumbledore's Army or the Order of the Pheonix. This is what will allow him in Deathly Hallows to command more respect from not just the other kids, but the adults in the Order.
Agree with your article, but I think we're all going to be a bit disappointed in the Snape/Harry scene, because it's my understanding that Snape doesn't say "Don't call me coward." (Unforgivable of them to leave it out, and fingers crossed that they put it in during post-production.)
Include the scenes (or even a scene) of Ginny, Molly and Fleur (or even of Ginny, Ron, Hermoine and Harry talking about Fleur) - love that in the book
I so can't wait to see this movie this week! Big fan -- and I've heard they are saying it's the best. If you like all things Harry Potter check out my column for their personalities. I will also link you to my articles.
Melissa, I would love to know if the film lived up to your hopes on these points. IMHO, they knocked it out of the park on points II, IV, V and VI, and did the best they could on I, given that Harry and Dumbledore's relationship has gotten short shrift in the films. I did sorely miss the "coward" line, although they do sneak in a reference to it in the Unbreakable Vow scene.
I'm also dying to know what you thought about the fact that they cut so much of the battle inside Hogwarts from the end of the film.
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